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A L H A M A —-ALIGARH
Alhama de Granada, a town in the province closer relationship with her parents, and especially with of Granada, Spain. Population, 7382. In 1884 five her father. In the summer of 1860, at Windsor Castle, churches, the hospital, the prison, the theatre, and more Princess Alice first met her future husband, Prince Louis than a thousand houses were destroyed by an earthquake. of Hesse. An attachment quickly sprang up, and on the Eight hundred persons were buried under the ruins. A prince’s second visit in November they were formally new town was built near the old one, mostly by subscrip- engaged. In the following year, on the announcement of tions raised in the rest of Spain. Strange to say, the the contemplated marriage, the House of Commons unanibaths, situate outside the town, were not much injured. mously voted a dowry of £30,000 and an annuity of Aliaga, a town of 17,000 inhabitants in the west- £6000 to the princess. In December 1861, while precentral portion of the province of Nueva Ecija, Luzon, parations were being made for the marriage, the Prince Philippine Islands. It is well situated in the midst of Consort was struck down with typhoid fever, and died on a rich Indian corn, rice, sugar, and tobacco-producing the 14th. Princess Alice nursed her father during his region, and has a comparatively cool and healthful climate. short illness with the utmost care, and after his death Tagalog is the most important language; Ilocano, Pam- devoted herself to comforting her mother under this terrible blow. Her marriage took place at Osborne, on pango, and Pangasinan are also used. 1st July 1862. The princess unconsciously wrote her Alicante, a maritime province in the S.E. of Spain, own biography from this period in her constant letters to with an area of 2096 square miles. Population (1897), Queen Victoria, a selection of which were allowed to be 451,174. The coast-line has an extent of 107 miles. The printed in 1883. They first appeared in Germany, under roads are not in very good condition. Railways run through the editorship of Doctor Sell; the English edition which the province from Alicante to Madrid, and to Murcia, and the being edited by Princess Helena (Princess Chrissouth of Spain. The province is divided into 14 districts followed tian). These letters give a complete picture of the daily and 138 parishes. There are, in working condition, 7 mines life of the duke and duchess, and they also show the inof iron ore, 2 of lignite, and 2 salt-mines. The salt-mines tense love of the latter for her husband, her mother, and of Torrevieja employed 561 men, and produced in 1898 93,493 tons of the estimated value of £31,082. The her native land. She managed to visit England every live stock in the province includes 4031 horses, 14,960 year, and it was at her special request that when she died mules, 8908 donkeys, 2160 oxen and cows, 52,790 sheep, her husband laid an English flag upon her coffin. In the war between Austria and Prussia in 1866, 19,461 goats, and 6555 pigs. Wheat is grown on 9000 acres, rye, oats, barley, and maize on 59,000, vines on Ij Hesse-Darmstadt was upon the side of the Austrians; 259,000, olive on 41,250. The births in the province Prince Louis accompanied his troops to the front, and average five to every four deaths. The population does was duly appointed by the grand-duke to the command not increase, however, owing to the emigration, mainly to of the Hessian division. This was a time of intense trial Oran in Algeria. Only the provinces of Almeria and to the princess, whose husband and brother-in-law, the crown prince of Prussia, were necessarily fighting upon Pontevedra show more emigrants annually than Alicante. opposite sides. The duke of Hesse also took part in the Alicante, a town of Spain, capital of the above pro- principal battles of the Franco-Prussian war, while the vince, and a resort in winter for invalids on account of its duchess was actively engaged in organizing hospitals for the mild and steady climate. Population in 1897, 49,463. Ali- relief of the sick and wounded. The death of the duke’s cante was more affected than the other Mediterranean ports father, Prince Charles of Hesse, on 20th March 1877, was in 1898 when Spain lost her colonies, after her struggle with the United States, as is shown by the figures of the followed by that of the grand-duke on 13th June, and Prince Louis succeeded to the throne as Grand Duke Louis shipping at the port in 1897 and 1898. In 1897 the return IV. In the summer of 1878 the grand-duke and duchess, of all the shipping gives 1769 vessels, with 1,475,994 tons, and in 1898, 1660 vessels, with 1,008,937 tons. The coast- with their family, came again to England, and went to Easting trade has been on the increase for several years, and bourne, where the duchess remained for some time. She this partly explains how 1250 Spanish vessels, with 836,795 returned to Darmstadt in the autumn, and on 8th November tons, rank in the returns for 1898. The principal exports 1878 her daughter, Princess Victoria, was attacked by were wines, valued at £700,000 in 1897, and £800,000 in diphtheria. Three more of her children, as well as her 1898 ; lead, valued at £160,000 in 1897, and £150,000 in husband, quickly caught the disease, and the youngest, 1898; almonds, valued at £60,000 in 1897, and £65,000 “May,” succumbed on the 16th. On 7th December the m 1898 ; esparto, valued at £10,000 in 1897, and £20,000 princess Avas herself attacked, and, being weakened by in 1898 ; saffron, valued at £75,000 in 1897, and £40^000 nursing and anxiety, had not strength to resist the disease, which proved fatal on 14th December, the seventeenth in 1898. anniversary of her father’s death. In a sermon preached Alice Maud Mary, Grand-Duchess of Hesse- on the day after her death, Canon Duckworth admirably Darmstadt (1843-1878), second daughter and third child summed up the character of the princess : “Endowed with of Queen Victoria, was born at Buckingham Palace, 25th April 1843. A pretty, delicate-featured child—“ cheer- rich intellectual gifts, and with a force and charm of charful, merry, full of fun and mischief,” as her elder sister acter which would have made her a conspicuous power in any rank, the princess whom we mourn has passed her brief described her—fond of gymnastics, a good skater, and a days in unwearied use of great opportunities.” She left devoted rider, she was a general favourite from her earliest (g. f. b.) days. Her first years were passed without particular one son and four daughters. incident in the home circle, where the training of their Aligarh, a city and district of British India, in the children was a matter of the greatest concern to the Queen Meerut division of the North-West Provinces. The city, also and the Prince Consort. Among other things, the royal known as Koil, is a station on the East Indian railway, 876 children were encouraged to visit the poor, and the effect miles from Calcutta. Sir Sayad Ahmad Khan, K.C.S.I., of this training was very noticeable in the later life of who died in 1898, founded in 1864 the Aligarh Institute Princess Alice. After the marriage of the Princess Royal and Scientific Society for the translation into the vernacular in 1858, the new responsibilities devolving upon Princess of western literature; and afterwards the Mahommedan Alice, as the eldest daughter at home, called forth the College, under English professors, with an higher traits of her character, and brought her into still Anglo-Oriental English school attached. In 1896-97 the college had 114
